“Usually we use very sophisticated, time-consuming and expensive methods to analyze the quality of water,” Moscow State University professor Valery Petrosyan told RT. “To analyze one probe of water we need 6 hours, which is unacceptable considering we have to guarantee the quality of water supplies to the city around the clock. We’ve found a fundamentally new approach which allows us to control water quality in real time. We’ve tried fish and shell fish, but it turns out that mollusks are best suited for this purpose. If any toxic substance gets into the water, they react instantly.”

Despite having about a quarter of the world’s fresh water reserves, millions of Russians have to drink bottled water because their own water supplies from the taps are too dirty.

Last year a conference tried to address the issue, deciding to institute a clean water plan between 2010 and 2012. This includes various measures to clean up the water supply. First, the mollusks can be used determine where the water is clean and where it is dirty. Second, new chemicals are being looked at to treat water in treatment plants, as the existing schemes are too obsolete. Last, specialists need to look for new places to find the water going deeper underground, where the water is cleaner and less contaminated than surface water supplies.